Letters from Iwo Jima

My wife and I just got home from watching "Letters from Iwo Jima". Damn, what a good movie. We saw "Flags of our Fathers" this past summer and I seriously cannot tell you which one I liked better. Both are absolutely phenomenal. Clint held nothing back when it comes to both honesty in history and cinematographic expertise. "Flags" (if you will) has such a compelling story line but "Letters" has such a good ending. Honestly, the whole thing makes me want to go to Owosso and hug my grandfather (who was an amphibious tractor driver in the South Pacific in WWII).
I guess that brings me to my thought, more of an interesting awareness of my self. "Letters" is told completely from the Japanese perspective with a Japanese protagonist and all the trimmings. His story was compelling and I found myself wanting to see him survive and go home to his family...except for when there was Americans shooting in his direction. "There he is..."; I would think. "One in his head will do it, two if you have them." Yeah, I know. But to be honest I cannot say that I feel bad about feeling that way. It was war and they wanted American troops dead; American dads, brothers and sons. My grandfather has seen things so terrible that he cannot speak of to this day; and they wanted him dead.
Maybe it is self-preservation, maybe it is patriotism and maybe it is should be under a bridge. I have a relatively new relative in a cousin-in-law or something, he married my first cousin. You guessed it, he is Japanese. Well in addition to my cousin loving him, my whole family loves him. This includes my veteran grandfather. He is a great guy and I look forward to hanging out with him at family gatherings.
At the end of the day, I will have lots of days hanging out with my fairly new relative and not so many left with my grandpa. I think I will go to Owosso after all and tell grandpa that I love him and perhaps not mention the WWII movies at all.

Chivalry is Sexist

Alright, fine, we got it... men and women are equal. A man or woman may perform tasks or do jobs differently but equally as effective on the whole. There are no longer "guy kinda jobs" where women have no place. Women have not only kept up, but have thrived from the heaviest lifting jobs to the highest corner office gigs. Congratulations all you "Y" chromosome carriers, this Bud's for you!
But of course this all does not happen in a vacuum. With any change, the bad comes with the good. For one thing... Chivalry. Chivalrous conduct: marked by honor, generosity, and courtesy b : marked by gracious courtesy and high-minded consideration especially to women (webster.com). When was the last time you saw a women being chivalrous to a man? Now I do not want to hear about holding doors open at the mall for the person behind you who happened to be a guy. I mean, when have you ever seen a woman give up something of her's to a guy BECAUSE he was a guy? (except to make fun of him) "Here sir take my seat, I will stand. My mother brought me up right." "Let me put my jacket over that puddle for you sir. I wouldn't what you to mess those nice shoes." Chivalry assumes dependence on another person's generosity. If you were fired, got sick, parents died in a car accident then sure, ANYONE would need help. But to be chivalrous to women assumes a need on their part simply because they are women. That is not what women have been fighting so hard for all these years. You cannot have it both ways.
Chivalry may be dead. If it is, women killed it.

God translator

God, I miss him. Don't ask; "Who?" because I just told you who... Remember when we were all young? Remember when church was God and your Dad was God and all was right in the world? Yeah, what ever happened to that? I am starting to believe that all is not right with the world and that is why people reach toward the heavens for answers; or are the listening to the heavens? There in-lies the rub. Did God create us in His image or is the reverse also true? Does it matter?
If you believe in God I am sure that it does matter. If you do not believe in God then Happy Winter Solstice to ya! And then there is the rest of us. I remember a line from one of my favorite movies "The Usual Suspects": "I don't believe in God; but I am afraid of him." Well I don't believe in the God worshiped in the churches of my youth and being 35 years old I am quite sure dear-old-dad ain't omniscient, omnipresent, and well ... perfect. So why do I still pray? Habit? Or is there something out there? As a physical therapist I have seen things I cannot explain. I have seen people with chronic debilitating back pain find final relief from pressure point electrical stimulation and I have seen patients become weaker with a wave of a hand over their back by the right person and stronger again with the reverse wave. I am always impressed when people say they know exactly what something is BECAUSE there is no evidence of what it is; see also Ghosts and hauntings. An increase in magnetic fields is common when ghost are present huh? And you know this because you tested this with and without ghosts in the room? Then again how would you know a ghost was in the room in order to test the magnetic fields? Psychic friends network?
So something is out there. It is also possible what is out there is really in here (pointing at my chest). Does that mean that it is not out there? I guess in the end I believe. I believe that I believe. C.S. Lewis explained this concept to non-believers saying that even a scientist goes home and kisses his wife. Love is not in a lab or on a scale but it exists as much as Argon, bridges and Hardee's. So what the hell? I guess in the end I may be having trouble finding the right "God translator" but that does not mean that we are not getting by with nods and hand gestures.

TMI

So there I am buying a belt at a department store and before he tells me what the price is with the tax, the nice boy behind the counter asks me for my phone number. Now the belt I was buying did not match my shoes so I knew he was not hitting on me. So I asked him; "Why do you need my phone number?" "It is just to track our customer base"; he returned. So I told him that I don't give out my phone number because I hate telemarketer calls. To which he assures me that my information would not be used for marketing purposes. So I informed him that was was what the last person told me and now I get messages on my answering service about "Exciting Sale Opportunities". "If you are already getting messages then what does it matter?" he asks. "Exactly"; I retorted. Then he tells me that he has to enter a phone number in order to get to the screen that allows him to ring me up. So then I said; "Are you telling me that it is physically impossible to come in here and buy a belt without giving you a phone number?" Click, Click, Click and he was ringing me up.
Kramer had it right on Seinfeld when he questioned why you have to give your address to buy batteries at Radio Shaq. I mean how many of us have key chains heavy laden with in store sale cards? Remember the good old days when stores tried to put out a good product at a competitive price in order to earn your patronage? Now they force you to give up personal information for them to sell (no matter what you hear otherwise) for the privilege of saving a dollar off four dollars worth of shredded store-brand cheese. So in addition to department stores and grocery stores making money of the sale of your personal information, the telephone company makes money off their call filtering services so that after answering your phone, you do no have to hear that familiar: silence...click... "Hello, is this Mr. So-and-So?" (add the foreign accent of your choice).
I usually delete all forwarded emails, but my friend who knows this sent me a great one. Next time you get a telemarketer call tell them: "That sounds great, but hold on a second..." Then go mow the lawn. If you are not interested and say "no", they still know that is a live phone line and still call. If you wast their time, they take you off their list. Hate junk mail? Try using the pre-approved envelopes they send you to send them back some of your other junk mail on their dime! (four dimes actually) Thank-you Beth!